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United States Patent CURVED SPREADER GUIDE Application March 15, 1952, Serial No. 276,828

2 Claims. or. 26-63) This invention relates to an arcuate guiding roll which serves the purpose of spreading a web, such as a film or sheet of cellophane or other plastic material, a textile fabric, felt or the like. This application is a continuationin-part of my application Serial No. 131,979, filed December 9, 1949.

Arcuate spreader rolls have heretofore been provided in either of two types. In one type, the individual rotary segments are uncovered and there is a distinct separation line between segments. In the other type, a single or double layer of rubber has been provided in the form of a sleeve or a plurality of concentric sleeves surrounding the segments and extending the full length of the roller. It has been found that these two types of spreader rollers cannot satisfactorily be used under certain conditions. For example, when handling a plastic pellicle, such as of cellophane or of a cellulose acetate film or of a vinyl resin film, neither of the types of spreader rollers heretofore known can be used at any stage when the spreading must be done at elevated temperatures, such as during or immediately after leaving the drying stage. Similarly, neither type of spreader rollers heretofore known can be satisfactorily employed when pellicles of the type just mentioned bear a recently applied coating, such as may be encountered in the process of moistureproofing a cellophane sheet. The same incapacity applies when a felt or textile fabric carries a coating layer of an impregnant and spreading must be done at relatively high temperatures, such as in or after a drying stage. For example, when a cellophane pellicle carrying a moistureproofing coating is passed over such a roll provided with a rubber covering at a temperature of 140 to 260 F., there may be some residual solvent such as toluol or butyl acetate or a mixture thereof which is transferred to the rubber sleeve and causes rapid deterioration thereof. Also, the moistureproofing coating contains a waxy material and oily materials which tend to transfer to the rubber and further deteriorate or cause a change in the surface which scratches or imprints the cellophane, leaving it streaked, scratched, smeary, dotted with the oily and waxy materials due to elf-setting from the rubber, spotted, or with a moire type of design.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved spreader roller which is capable of operating under conditons, such as those mentioned hereinabove without deterioration of the outer covering sleeve and without streaking or marring the material, such as cellophane, which passes over the roller. If moistureproof cellophane is being produced, the marring, scratching, and streaking referred to above destroys the moistureproofness of the cellophane and, therefore, prohibits the use of arcuate spreader rolls existing previously.

Generally, the objects of the present invention are accomplished by providing such a spreader roller with an outer covering or sleeve formed of a cloth, felt, a nonfibrous membrane or pellicle of regenerated cellulose, or of cellulose ethers and esters as more specifically related hereinbelow.

In the drawing, which is illustrative of the invention, the sin le figure is a side elevation of a spreader roll, with parts in cross section.

The spreader roll of the present invention may be used in gangs or groups thereof or a single one may be used as desired. They may be mounted in end bearings which are fixed in position or the ends of the spreader roll may be mounted in a frame which is swivelly mounted as in my copending application Serial No. 131,979 supra.

As shown in the drawing, the spreader roller 5 comprises an arcuate shaft 56 having projecting ends which are mounted fixedly in the end bearings 3 such as by a key 4. The end bearings specifically shown in the figure are carried on a common transverse frame support 6 which is pivotally mounted on the fixed frame 7 by means of a pin 8. If desired, the frame 6 may be secured in fixed position on the support 7 by means of the detent 9 carried in the projection 10 from the frame 6. A spring 11 urges the detent 9 into any one of a number of recesses 12 in the periphery of the support 7.

The roller also comprises a series of segmental rollers or metal shells 57 mounted on shaft 56 by means of ball bearings 58 seated in the raceways 59 and oil at each end' of each segmental shell. Races 59 are retained tightly in the annular grooves 55 inside the ends of the shells. The segmental rollers are separated a small distance (approximately A of an inch) by means of brass discs 61 to facilitate their free rotation on the curved shaft 56. A tube or sleeve 62 of resilient material, such rubber, neoprene, or other synthetic rubber is mounted over the segmental rollers preferably in a tight-fitting relationship. The sleeve 62 has sufiicient stiffness, however, to enable the driving rotation of the roller as a unit by means of puileys 30 mounted at one or both ends of the roller and secured to the endmost shell by the setscrew 31. If desired, the pulleys may be omitted or left without operating belts in order to leave the spreader roller in idling condition. A collar 32 is secured to shaft 56 at each end thereof by a set screw 33 to retain the segmental rollers thereon.

Over the sleeve 62 there is provided a covering 63 formed of a cloth, felt, or regenerated cellulose. The cloth may be a fine mesh balloon cloth muslin, linen, any fine closely woven cloth or a sleeve of finely woven felt or flannel, such as canton flannel. The regenerated cellulose sleeve may be obtained from viscose, cuprammonium cellulose, or by the denitration of nitrocellulose or by the saponification of cellulose acetate. The covering 63 may be made up in the form of a sleeve and pulled or shrunk onto and over the resilient sleeve 62 or it may be wrapped around the latter in layers or spirally. A sleeve consisting of cellulose nitrate has also been found very satisfactory.

The covering 63 may be mounted in position by the shrinking of a sleeve of material, such as of flannel, felt, or regenerated cellulose. The cloth may be made of cotton, wool, rayon or any other shrinkable fiber which is unaffected by the temperatures and solvents that occur in the handling of the particular material with which the spreader roller is to be used.

The inner sleeve 62 keeps any oil or grease in the bearings from reaching the outer sleeve 63 and also prevents pinching of the inside surface of the outer sleeve. Another important feature of my invention is that by using an outer covering, a vastly wider choice of material may be employed for the inner resilient tube. Thus, a much softer and more flexible type of material may be employed to Withstand the tremendous flexing strains While spreading and guiding, and this vastly prolongs the life of the spreading roller.

it is to be understood that changes and variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.

i I claim 1. An arcuate roll for spreading and guiding a web comprising a fixed curved shaft, a plurality of segmental rollers rotatably mounted thereon'and being spaced apart axially of the shaft, a common resilient sleeve surrounding the plurality of rollers, and a covering sleeve of a textile material tightly fitting around the resilient sleeve.

2. An areuate roll for spreading and guiding a web comprising a fixed curved shaft, a plurality of segmental rollers rotatably mounted thereon and being spaced apart axially of the shaft, a common resilient sleeve surrounding the plurality of rollers, and a regenerated cellulose covering sleeve tightly fitting around the resilient sleeve.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 42,224 Pond Apr. 5, 1864 Hadley Feb. 28, 1911 Kemshall Apr. 7, 1914 Bergstrom Jan. 2, 1917 Paxton Aug. 19, 1919 Thatcher Apr. 21, 1931 Schwartz Apr. 17, 1934 Watkins Oct. 26, 1937 Toland Mar. 2, 1943 Harlow July 10, 1951 Robertson Aug. 7, 195 1 Robertson JanJlS, 1952 OTHER REFERENCES 

